Fish DNA Barcoding

The Fish Barcode of Life Initiative (FISH-BOL), is a global effort to coordinate an assembly of a standardised reference sequence library for all fish species, one that is derived from voucher specimens with authoritative taxonomic identifications. The benefits of barcoding fishes include facilitating species identification for all potential users, including taxonomists; highlighting specimens that represent a range expansion of known species; flagging previously unrecognized species; and perhaps most importantly, enabling identifications where traditional methods are not applicable.

Over the last 7 years the Fish Barcode of Life effort has been creating a valuable public resource in the form of an electronic database containing DNA barcodes, images, and geospatial coordinates of examined specimens. The database contains linkages to voucher specimens, information on species distributions, nomenclature, authoritative taxonomic information, collateral natural history information and literature citations. FISH-BOL thus complements and enhances existing information resources, including the Catalog of Fishes, FishBase and various genomics databases .

About FISH-BOL.org

FISH-BOL.org is the initial site of an ongoing effort to bring the information gathered through this initiative to the both its participants and the broader community. It functions as a portal to BOLD (Barcode of Life Data Systems), and as an information resource for the community at large. If you have any questions or suggestions for the site please contact Bob Hanner.